Along with the Times (five awards) and the News of the World (four), the Guardian (also four) took home the lion's share of the spoils from the annual awards.

The judges said the US embassy cables put "the Guardian at the top of the news headlines and some say it will change relationships between governments and the press and public forever".

Other Guardian awards came for Andrew Sparrow, named political journalist of the year, Amelia Gentleman, who won best features writer, and the paper's 2010 World Cup Guide, which came out on top in the special supplement category.

Caitlin Moran, the Times writer, won two awards – critic and interviewer of the year – while the same paper's David Robertson took home the prize for best business and financial journalist.

The Times' Peter Brookes was named best cartoonist and his colleague Matthew Parris won columnist of the year.

Scoop of the year went to the News of the World for its cricket corruption story, described by the judges as "the definition of a scoop for its jaw-dropping impact".

The News of the World's undercover reporter, Mazher Mahmood, was named news reporter of the year and Stephen Moyes won best showbiz reporter for the paper, while the Sunday title's magazine Fabulous prevailed in the regular supplement of the year category.

Accepting the newspaper of the year award, Alan Rusbridger, Guardian editor-in-chief, praised his colleagues as "a fabulous team to work with" and singled out the US embassy cables coverage.

"It's far too early to say what effect the story had on events in the Middle East and north Africa but I would guess it would have had some effect," he said from the stage at London's Savoy hotel, where the ceremony was held.

Recalling the Guardian's collaboration with a range of partners on the WikiLeaks story, Rusbridger said the reason why the files had been shared with the New York Times was because the US constitution's first amendment was the "gold standard for free speech worldwide".

While libel laws in the UK were now being reformed, he said that he hoped the White House would think carefully about its approach towards Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, and Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking classified cables to WikiLeaks.

At a time when the eyes of the world will be on how America will react, he appealed to the US administration to be appropriate in its treatment of Manning, who is being held in a military prison after being arrested in May 2010.

The Mail on Sunday won three awards, with Matt Sandy named journalist of the year and Mark Pain winning best sports photographer. The digital innovation award went Mail Online, the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday website network.

Another double winner was the London Evening Standard, taking home the Cudlipp award and campaign of the year for The Dispossessed, which raised awareness of London's poor.

The Daily Mirror won best front page of the year for "Pinickio", which depicted Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg with the nose of Pinocchio for his U-turn over university tuition fees.

Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Egyptian newspaper Al-Dustour, was named international journalist of the year. Eissa is on bail pending an appeal against a year-long prison sentence and fine charged with insulting former Egyptian president Mubarak and publishing false information likely to disturb public order.

The Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent and Getty Images took home one award each.

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